Life on Perhentian Islands – Exploring Sugar Wreck

Beside many beautiful reefs there are also several wrecks around the Perhentians. The biggest one is Sugar wreck, a former Thai ship which transported sugar and run into problems close to the Malaysian coast about 15 years ago. It was cheaper to sink the ship as to bring it back to Thailand. Nowadays she lays on her side 18m under water and fascinates divers with her size, exiting layout, several entrances and a high aboundance of marine life. That was the ship my college Alfie and I wanted to teach the Wreck Diver Course on!!! Before we could sell the course we had to explore the wreck ourself first. We were exited! The words of my other college were in my head: “Take care!!!” Down in the water Alfie and I first surveyed the deck and tower for possible entrances. Then we went carefully into her. It was dark, only little blue light came in through small windows and cracks. We made our way through the corridores and along stairs deeper into the ship. Our torch helped us to explore the dark rooms while the reels in our hands connected us to the outside of the wreck. Sometimes we stopped to draw some sketches of our path and the rooms on the white board. That she lays on her side make the whole experiance even more surreal to me. I followed the corridor while I dived down vertical and went down stairs by diving horizonal. Inside the ship all directions were clear while only short after the dive my memory would start to play tricks on me. As we were relaxed and confident our air consumption was low. At one point we still had to finish our survey as the rest of the divers should not have to wait for us. So we followed our reels backwards until we reached the small door again which was our entrance point. I clipped the reel back on my jacket and with a big smile on our faces we went to the safty stop where the other group was waiting already. Back on the surface Alfie and I fully agreed that that was one of the best dives ever! The rest of the day I was busy drawing maps and getting a feeling for distances and orientation inside the wreck. Now everying is prepared. I look forward to our first Wreck Diver Course in Sugar wreck!